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GOTNW

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    2006

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Everything posted by GOTNW

  1. GOTNW
    This was fun although I remember liking last year's Casas-Volador Jr. matches more. Opening matwork was fun and Casas' stomping on Volador Jr. before submitting him was a cool spot. Casas' leg work was good looking albeit inconsequential. Third fall had some cool spots like Casas' Powerbomb counter and some nice kicks to the face but Volador seemed lost most of the time and the way these matches are often paces with stuff-pause-stuff you need the stuff to look good and work and a lot of Volador Jr's spots just don't. **3/4
  2. GOTNW
    I love the visual of Ultimo Guerrero-CMLL headliner and El Satanico-bona fide legend-grappling in a half empty arena with kids playing in the background while their dads smile and enjoy some REAL LUCHA. Lots of nifty takedowns, escapes and holds as you'd hope from thse two, I like Ultimo much more when he's working the mat in indy matches like here or in the Black Terry match than when he's Ultimo Guerreroing in CMLL. ***1/2
  3. GOTNW
    I liked the opening matwork and how they transitioned into the FIP segment, Satanico is the king of cheapshots and I also loved how he signaled to his teammate to save him when he was in trouble. Tequilita was the worst guy here, I'm not one to shit on fat and/or big guys just for the sake of doing so and while Dandy may have managed to carry him on the mat his punches and clotheslines looked pretty bad. Everyone else was good though, Diluvio Negro rocked Dandy with some great punches and headbutts. Dandy seemed to struggle with locking in the Figure 4, guess his knees might be shot but he can still throw some great strikes which is good enough for me. ***1/4
  4. GOTNW
    This was fascinating to watch. Nia Jax has no presence whatsoever and carried herself like she is much smaller than she is. She deserves more opportunities than someone of lesser size because (I assume) it's harder to find someone her size and you need as much variety as you can get. This felt very much like a Kiyoshi Tamura U-Style match against a not big name in that while it wasn't a total squash it felt close to it. At no point did you get the impression Asuka was in danger. It was interesting to see Asuka feed herself submissions and kicks and work around Nia. If Nia *got* the most fundamental things about her character I'd have advocated working a different much and would argue that one could have been much better, but as it stands I'll gladly take this since no one else is doing Kiyoshi Tamura vs Tom Burton right now. ***1/4
  5. GOTNW
    Man people sure do love to complain about insignificant things these days. I guess that comes with having another tab with twitter open while watching matches and being more focused on HOT TAKES than the match itself. Some were bothered by Nakamura "no-selling" the legwork, I honestly forgot about the legwork by the time Aries' heat segment took place. If the legwork was memorable enough for me to actually, you know, remember it, maybe I'd have a problem with it, but it wasn't and I didn't feel like it lasted long enough to warrant more selling. Shinsuke sold it, Aries stopped attacking his leg and then he moved on. People chanting a wrestler sucks because they aren't patient enough to watch a two minute heat segment is really ridiculous. Do these people even watch WWE matches or are they too busy screaming about how Kevin Owens is underutilized to pay attention what actually goes on in these matches. It's not hard to pick up on how WWE matches are worked. Hardy the most complex style. Aries did a good enough job when he was in control-he hit a nice tope and his diving elbow drops, dropkicks etc. were a big improvement over.....whatever he did in the Corbin match. I guess this was disappointing for some, but I don't think Aries is a great wrestler and he looked really bad in the Corbin match. I quite liked the matwork, I liked how they paced the match, the flash submission attempts and how they'd set them up. Nakamura's striking was on point and Aries' was better than usual, he rocked Nakamura with a Forearm pretty good. ***-***1/4
  6. GOTNW
    Man Sombra could use a better name, couldn't they just call him the Mexican Shadow or whatever? This was a solid showcase match for him, they went through a lot of stuff and it lacked the usual WWE cliches that usually hold down new wrestlers in their first matches there like unnecessary long chinlock portions etc. This would've surely been better if they had just a minute or two for the cool stuff they did to sink in but then again you don't want Tye Dillinger to look too competitive against Sombra. Then again every WWE match is probably too evenly worked so it wouldn't have mattered. Some interesting stuff here for sure, I found the early chain wrestling quite interesting and I'm interested to see whether Sombra's Elbow combinations, Moonsault feint into Moonsault and Dive feint will become regular spots. Also I didn't like how they set up the finish, it's not something I've ever talked about but I could buy Rey positioning someone into the ropes for a 619 because I felt he was in control of the move and even if it wasn't completely consistent with pro wrestling physics it also wasn't stretching believability by any means, especially when he'd Drop Toe Hold a guy onto ropes. Here you have Dillinger take a Bulldog and just blatantly set up Sombra's finish which I'm never a fan of. **3/4
  7. GOTNW
    Nominating: HARASHIMA vs Kazusada Higuchi (DDT 4/24/2016) HARASHIMA vs Isami Kodaka (DDT 3/21/2016) Mike Mendoza & El Cuervo vs. La Revolución (WWC 03/06)-YES Meiko Satomura vs. Syuri (Sendai Girls 3/11)-YES Kushida vs. Jushin Liger (NJPW 5/3/2016)-NO see MDA for comments
  8. GOTNW
    Nice to see someone do the equivalent of those amazing FMW tags in 2016, this was insane, everyone knows how to throw a punch and you have vrazy Puerto Ricans throwing each other onto walls, hitting each other with chairs and trash cans and bleeding all over the place, what is there not to love? There were some indy moves I could've done without in the comeback but overall this kicked ass. ****1/4
  9. GOTNW
    More of an angle than a match, Sasaki cashes in DDT's version of the MITB contract. The two minutes are pretty much just finisher attempts, and the highlight of it is HARASHIMA's selling of passing out at the end. Exciting for what it was.
  10. GOTNW
    Another neat HARASHIMA title match. I really like the way he uses matwork to establish the pace of his matches and the matwork itself is always interesting, I can't really think of a proper comparison for it. He demolishes Higuchi's leg here, kicking away at it and twisting it in all sorts of ways. Higuchi looked good as well, he did a solid job of selling the damage and had some great power spots which was enough for HARASHIMA to get them to a very strong match. HARASHIMA is probably the best ace in Japan right now. ***1/2
  11. GOTNW
    I really loved the opening, Hashimoto is, uhm.....bulky? but not as big as Aja and you had her using amateur-style takedowns and Aja battling her technique with size which was really cool. Aja can't move as much as she used to but she can still hit really hard and C-Hash comes to her and sells her strikes enough that it isn't an issue. It could have been better if C-Hash had some good liking striking offence but she did not. Still this is a very cool and unique match that I definitely recommend checking out. ***1/4
  12. GOTNW
    Great match. There are certain things I was willing to accept in the Satomura/Kong match due to their backstory (like the insane bomb throwing) but generally this match is much closer to how I'd like things to be done and I wish it didn't feel as distinctive as it did (and if there are are more matches like this you bet I'm willing to jump on them). A big selling point of how someone should wrestle and act is doing so in their character and like they want to win. Modern puro often ignores the latter part in favour of a bad take on grade school machismo. You don't want wasted movement in your match. Satomura applies the Mutoh Keylock, Shuri counters it into a side mount, Satomura grabs her into a front necklock from the bottom, gets up and slams her. That's a sequence that looks really cool, but more importantly is flows great, and it's the type of thing a lot of people don't even think about. You get one fluid and logical sequence instead of several illogical and disjointed ones. Whether it be on the ground or on their feet they're always trying to counter their opponent's moves and get back into control. Don't sleep on this one. ****1/4
  13. GOTNW
    I roll my eye whenever a japanese commentator talks about how O'Reilly is a shooter or how he works "UWFi style" but him and KUSHIDA mesh really well and are way better at working Minoru Tanaka style matches than the actual Minoru Tanaka. Lots of nice flashy faux shoot junior matwork here with some insane counters. Limbwork was entertaining and both of these guys won't forget to sell but the selling itself is very much surface level with not a lot of depth to it. O'Reilly's Rebound Lariat might be as bad as Ambrose's, which is saying a lot, but otherwise this was really fun. ***1/2
  14. GOTNW
    What I really like about KUSHIDA's matwork is that it's flashy while keeping the illusion it's out flashy out of necessity. Didn't like BUSHI's apron DDT, I could do without them usng so many gimimcked DDTs as transitional spots and here it didn't even look good. I liked BUSHI grabbing KUSHIDA's hair to get him in the STF and then working over his nose but them quickly moving out of it made it pretty insignificant. KUSHIDA half no-selling/half countering BUSHI's Codebreaker with a Double Wristlock was great and BUSHI's Suicide Dive was beautiful but they were also buried in the sea of average junior sequences and redundant interference. Finish was very exciting and saved the match, they did a much better job of varying their strikes than most of the heavyweights do, I always pop for KUSHIDA's punch and the interference actually added to the finish with everyone dramatically fighting Log Ingobernables De Japon off. ***
  15. GOTNW
    Similar to their match a month earlier though I think I liked this one slightly better. It didn't bother me in this particular instance but I always find it weird when the MC tells the crowd whom to cheer for. I love the way Santo uses a waistlock to control his opponent, he is insanely smooth, I love the way he will transition from a pin to a submission or vice-versa when it doesn't work out. There are some submission where you kinda know how they'll counter them and move on but early on there were a couple instances where Santo would bust out these insane totally out of the blue crazy hold counters, like something you'd see in an Otsuka match. We get the usual Santo highspots which is always a treat and I liked the way Blanco Jr. countered Santo's Camel Clutch. ***1/2
  16. GOTNW
    I love it when a much starts with a good lock up and we got a great one here with Santo just pulling Angel Blanco onto the ground. I didn't really come out of this with an impression of Angel Blanco Jr. but he was a good enough foil for the Hijo Del Santo title match with all the Santo spots I love. Santo's Plancha in particular looked great here, and I always pop for the struggle over the Camel Clutch. ***1/2
  17. GOTNW
    First fall ruled, Santo hit many of his beautiful highspots and Solitario did a great job stooging for him. Whenever Santo interacts with the crowd it's the kind of special words can't do justice. Second fall was meh, Solitario wasn't very interesting in control, his strikes were OK and he hit a nice spin kick but outside of him bloodying up Santo nothing memorable happened. Third fall was also great as the bloody Santo ran over Solitario, beating on him with vicious punches and knees and hitting him with great dives. I wanted something more compact, and I'm in no rush to watch more Solitario, but it was still good for what it was. ***-***1/4
  18. GOTNW
    The crowd here in this one was just insane. Awesome first fall with Santo carrying Blue Demon to probably the best matwork he's ever done and RDJ's weird shtick amused me. Match kind of disintegrated when it turned into a brawl and lacked substance, I was expecting worse from Blue Demon Jr. though, he threw some solid punches. Santo's big dive was pure magic. ***1/4
  19. GOTNW
    This is the only comparison thread we haven't done yet for the top three ranked luchadores. Judging by the Santo/Dandy thread Casas should win in a landslide which would be interesting since Satanico, who finished below Dandy in the GWE poll fared fairly well in a direct comparison versus Casas. I am not sure if Casas ever had a year like Dandy's 1990 but his best matches reached a higher peak than Dandy's and quantity and longevity are on his side. At his best Dandy was a phenomenal wrestler but I can't say his performances have ever impressed me so profoundly like Casas' best did.
  20. GOTNW
    A lovely match. That they worked something like three minutes of the match around the "wrestler sits on the second rope and offers the other one to go into the ring" is a testament to their greatness. I loved all the comedy and punches, it was almost bizarre to see how seamlessly they transitioned from rocking each other in the jaw to Murdoch working over Fujiwara's trunks. My only gripe is that I wanted something more out of the finish, after a certain number of attempts Fujiwara's Wakigatame just happened to do it, I'd have wanted him to either pull back on it more or to set it up better. Also loved Fujiwara busting out a Monkey Flip. ***3/4
  21. GOTNW
    I'm not promising a five thousand word post on it but Liger is someone whom I really don't consider a great wrestler anymore. A big part of that is probably that I don't care for his average performance-and that the constant revision of him annoys me to no end. "Don't forget about Liger! Don't forget about Liger!" Well, maybe people wouldn't "forget" about him if he was so great in the first place (and as GWE rankings showed-they really don't). This was an interesting Liger performance, and I'm finding it increasingly difficult to find those. It's not like it was brilliant display on his part or anything-but it was nice to see him go toe to toe with Fujiwara on the mat and match him in aggression. Fujiwara firing himself up while Liger slapper on him was a great moment, as was them just punching each other out on the mat. Lovely counter finish. ***1/2
  22. GOTNW
    Yeah this ruled. I always wondered how Hase would do in a shoot style promotion, I remember loving his match vs. Anjoh on one of those weird Inoki shows, and while that wasn't exactly what we got here it was still super fun. You'd expect Fujiwara's jokes to get old at some point but they just don't. Lots of nifty matwork and Fujiwara had so much shtick they could play up it was incredibly easy for this match to work. Not to say Hase wasn't good here-I enjoyed his takedowns, striking, selling and so on-but having Fujiwara as a foil allowed him to bloom. Loved all the fighting over the Fujiwara Armbar and how the match ended on the first killshot. ***3/4
  23. GOTNW
    I wouldn't say it's the best but the UWF 1 style is probably the most fascinating to watch. There is a distinct flair to the matwork and you always wonder what can they do. This is a match I could see many consider boring but I loved every second of it. Extremely minimalistic with struggle over every hold and transition. I loved Maeda's Capture Suplexes and his waistlock slam and the way the much was structured, Maeda controlled the entire bout and won without it feeling like a squash. I found it extremely impressive that they managed to make an over 15 minute match with that narrative work without any twists and turns. ****
  24. GOTNW
    He said so on twitter. I think he was a special ref or something on a DDT show recently so I presume this means he'll wrestle in Japan again and not in Vietnam under a mask. https://twitter.com/boliviacuba/status/739421354810736641 https://twitter.com/e_key_oide/status/739428659883184128
  25. GOTNW
    You wouldn't want a long match to feel like one but this one did. There were a lot of individual moments and sequences that I absolutely loved and I wish I loved the match as a whole as much as I loved them. Misawa's Elbow Suicida early on was just transcendental. It's the type of thing that would totally be done in a parallel universe where something as ridiculous as wrestling can be real. I liked Misawa almost finishing Taue early on as it happened but wonder if it hurt the match for me in the long run (not that it was bad by itself, but due to the way the match was structued I don't think it was fitting for it to be done so early). Misawa in peril wasn't particularly interesting as he wasn't allowed to do...anything really, and Taue beating on him was much more interesting than Kawada doing so. Match peaked in the middle with Akiyama's hot tag, he was just insane, Kawada can beat on someone really well but I'm starting to think I overrate him because of that, Akiyama totally makes their exchanges next level here, he is phenomenal at firing himself up and the ways he avoided and countered Kawada's strikes and kicks were incredible. Then you get Akiyama's FIP segment which just ventures off into absurdity and from then on a match is a collection of cool moment I wish I could make myself care for more. I found it amusing how Taue's downfall was slipping on a Chokeslam attempt (if it was a botch-which it probably was-it added to the match for me) and Kawada's was hurting himself on his own kick. It was a well done match no doubt, but even with Misawa clearing the path for Akiyamato finish the job it didn't feel right to me. ***1/2
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